Photo Credit: Washington TimesGov. Rick Perry sat back in shock when I told him President Obama told Mexicans that an upside of his efforts to infringe the Second Amendment would be to make them safer. The Texas Republican, a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), pushed back his chair and thought before speaking.

“The idea that a United States president would go to Mexico and make that statement is incredulous,” the 2012 president candidate told me in an interview after his rousing speech at the NRA annual meeting in Houston Friday. “His goal — well before he became president of the United States — was to try to disarm the American public. He just disregards the Constitution…”

Mr. Perry has a very different view of the importance of restricting gun rights in America in order to protect Mexicans. “Nothing could be a greater tragedy for America than to disarm the public,” the Lone Star State chief executive said. “If mothers want peace of mind. If mothers want their children to be safe. An armed, knowledgeable general populace is the way for that to occur.”